Yasai Itame
by SabrinaYutsuki
Summary: A bento and a humble veggie stir fry helps Oto sort out her feelings between Haruto and Tenma. This is a short but sweet one-shot fanfic for Hana Nochi Hare aka Hana Yori Dango (Hanadan) Next Season


YASAI ITAME by: SabrinaYutsuki

Wow. I haven't written anything in YEARS. Writing has always been my favorite pastime and I can't believe I let the hustle and bustle of everyday life hamper me from pursuing it. I am pretty sure this is not my best work, since I am extremely rusty, but I'm glad I got this out because ever since I watched Hana Nochi Hare, I have had an itch to write this down.

This happens right after the argument at the cafe, post-amusement-park-date, the first time we see Tenma snap.

Hope you leave a comment!

* * *

Shaking hands, uneven breath. Thoughts tainted with pain and frustration, screaming at him in a scandalous volume.

He covered his face with his palms as if that gesture would somehow cage his emotions.

This wasn't him.

This wasn't the Hase Tenma he had built all his life - cool, collected... infallible.

He tried to convince himself it was a nightmare. And yet... Even his nightmares were placid - a picture of his dying mother fading away in slow motion. The creep of loneliness gnawing his insides bit by bit. The cold stare of his stepmother piercing him.

No, this was different. This was an angry storm, intent on destroying everything in its path.

Why did it have to rear its ugly head on Oto, of all people?

Of course, Oto ran after his outburst. Ran away from the monster that he was capable of becoming. Ran into Haruto's arms.

Oto asked for time. But Tenma didn't need to wait to know what would happen next.

He would never see her again. And he deserved the punishment.

* * *

Oto's feet shuffled hastily out the cafe, toward a destination she herself did not know. When she felt her endurance waning, the pained image of his childhood friend would kick her adrenaline back up.

When her lungs felt ready to collapse, she finally decided to rest against a big tree, whose branches looked menacing against the dark backdrop.

He was right. She had asked Tenma out on a date but ended up being preoccupied with another man. How cruel could she be?

She wanted badly to have the perfect date with him. Didn't she dream of this date for so long? Didn't she write her name with Tenma's surname so many times on her journal? And now that fate was finally granting her wish, she felt her convictions falter.

She rummaged through her bag and took out the bento she had made, wrapped in a dainty silk cloth. She woke up 2 hours early to make sure the bento would be perfect. Initially, she had decided to just make him sandwiches. Simple and quick. But doubts crept up on her. Did Tenma still like sandwiches? Weren't sandwiches too plebeian for the perfect man? So she went into a flurry of various recipes, building one lunch box on top of another. Added extra fancy decorations to make them look more worthy.

Haruto saw right through her saying the bento wasn't like her. His classmate's words rang in her head, shaming her, so she ended up wasting the day and ignoring her date. Then Haruto almost confessed his feelings, troubling her even more.

She chastised herself, kicking the dirt under her shoes.

Why was she so capricious? The only thing she ever wanted all this time was to survive Eitoku to fulfill her engagement with Tenma. She had even lied for the cause. Now that things were falling into place, a new person had come into her life, and she was suddenly thrown aback.

She remembered the words Tenma told her at the aquarium. About the wall she had built between them. About his determination to take each and every layer down.

She took a deep breath and tried to distract herself with her surroundings. The huge tree had lent her so much support till now that she no longer regarded it as ominous. Across the tree was a vast space with a large slide on one side. The Eitoku student's eyes went wide as recognition hit her. It was dark but she could distinctly make out what the park looked like under the light of the sun.

It was the playground where she and Tenma used to spend their idle summer days in. Back when she still lived a fairy tale life. Even then, she felt like Tenma was always a level above her. Always the top student, the top in kendo, archery, judo. Always wise beyond his years. When her riches were stripped away, she fell down an even steeper descent.

With Haruto, she had a blank slate to begin with, and even found him to be heartless and arrogant. There was no pressure to be someone better.

The realization hit her like a ton of bricks. Shoving her bento inside her bag, she ran with renewed vigor and a clear sense of purpose

* * *

The sun that shone brightly the next morning betrayed the mood of Tenma. He had a listless sleep the night prior. The deafening silence of his room, which used to be a source of pleasure for him, had become stifling. It gave him too much capacity to analyze the alternative realities he could have made last night.

Oto asked for time but somehow he had a feeling, she had already made up her mind.

On cue, his phone rang, revealing her name, the name he was staring at since last night as he resisted the urge to call her.

"Tenma-kun. We need to talk. At the lobby if that's okay."

This all felt quite familiar to him. The lobby. Oto giving up on them. Running away. On the previous time, he had solved the problem. External factors that were easy to handle. This time, Oto would say goodbye of her own accord. And the only thing he could do is to smile and wish her well. She deserved that. He clenched his fist and ran down to his doom.

The bittersweet deja vu hit him as he saw Oto there with a pensive look, standing. Poised to leave him. As soon as he arrived, she bowed down and he knew what would happen next.

"Tenma-kun, we should cancel the engagement."

* * *

The words were spoken clearly, with so much conviction that it punched him in the gut. Somehow, even if he had already prepared for this, it still felt so raw. He tried to smile but his lips curved into an unusual shape and his lungs had started to fail him again.

"I understand, Oto. For what it's worth, I just wanted to apologize again for last night's outburst."

The words were so polite and sterile, like he was talking in front of parents at Momonozono's open house.

She shook her head vehemently, and he found it cruel that she refused to give him the little peace of mind that an apology can provide.

"No, Tenma-kun. You don't have to apologize. So you're human after all."

He looked at her quizzically.

"Human?"

A smile sparkled in her eyes.

"Remember when you said I had built a wall between the two of us?"

He nodded, still dazed.

"Last night, I did a lot of thinking and realized why I kept being distracted by Haruto."

He winced at that, but patted himself on the back for managing to retain his composure.

"It's because with Haruto, I was able to act the way I really am, with no inhibitions. And when he questioned my bento, I was so disturbed by it. It dawned on me that the way I am with Haruto had nothing to do with Haruto, but everything to do with myself. You see, I didn't build a wall between us. I placed you on top of a tall pedestal, always beyond my reach. You were always the prince of my dreams. And I was always the unworthy girl trying to gain your affections."

He shook his head, not agreeing to her unworthiness.

"With all your efforts to come down from that pedestal, I just kept raising you higher and higher out of my reach. You said you wanted to know and accept the new Oto, but I was too afraid to show her to you. And I don't want to do that anymore."

She rummaged inside her bag and pulled out a small lunchbox shaped like a teddy bear. She shyly handed it to Tenma.

"Here. Open it."

Tenma, at a loss for words, sat down and started opening it, his nervous hands fumbling with the locks.

Inside was a bed of vegetables resting on plain white rice.

"Tenma-kun. I am not the three-layer bento I gave you yesterday. And I am definitely not a 5-course Michelin star meal. I am just this simple veggie stir-fry. I'm not always a dainty lady. I get annoyed, I bicker, and I often find the lifestyle of the wealthy to be ridiculous. I want to show you more and more of this new Oto every single day. But I can only do this if we start from scratch. That's why I hope we can cancel the engagement first and start by knowing each other again. If we find ourselves back to an engagement someday, then it would be so much sweeter because it would be on our own path. What do you think?"

A short silence passed.

The ebony-haired boy picked up the chopsticks, trying to steady himself as he brought the stir fry into his mouth. He smiled and chewed ever so slowly, relishing its taste.

"This stir-fry is delicious, Oto. Exactly what I want. Definitely all I will ever need."

She let out a breath she did not know she was holding and smiled so widely, her face was crinkled.

"I'm so glad."

He downed the remaining stir-fry in just two gulps, eliciting a giggle from Oto. While gingerly closing back the lunchbox, he playfully retorted. "So we started from being engaged to dating and now to getting to know each other again? Seems like we keep downgrading, huh?"

She bantered back - "Not downgrading. Just bringing down the pedestal."

He smiled, and felt an enormous weight being lifted from his back. He had pressured himself to become perfect all this time because that was what everyone expected him to be. With all those expectations gone, he was eager to know the New Tenma as much as the New Oto. He grabbed her in a sweet embrace and she hugged back, tears of joy forming in her eyes.

She realized now what her mother meant when love was like a roller coaster.

Love was not perfect. It had its ups and downs. Sometimes it disoriented you. But at the end of the day, all that mattered was choosing who you want to be with till the very end of the ride.

"Hey Oto?" Tenma asked while breaking their embrace.

"Hm?" The short-haired girl cocked her head to one side in curiosity.

"I know you said we're supposed to start over, but will a kiss be considered ungentlemanly?" His eyes glinted naughtily.

She laughed, unfettered by all the doubts and fears that had been holding her back as she leaned in for the kiss.

"Well... Nobody is perfect after all."

* * *

Hope you like it! Any Hana Nochi Hare fans out here? Any Team Tenma fans here? I ADORE Tenma X Oto and I feel like the story could have gone the Tenma route as naturally as it did with the Haruto route.


End file.
